MacTech Blog

According to the IDC research group (www.idc.com), vendor revenue in the worldwide server market declined 4.6% year over year to $11.8 billion in the first quarter of 2017 (1Q17).

Overall server market growth continues to slow down with most hyperscale service providers waiting until the second half of the year for deployment of Intel's new Skylake processors. High-end server sales continue to be a drag on overall market performance.

The market has also been negatively affected by DRAM pricing issues. Worldwide server shipments increased 1.4% year over year to 2.21 million units in 1Q17. One customer accounted for more than 10% of the servers shipped in 1Q17.

The Gartner research group (www.gartner.com) reports that half of all enterprise content will be machine authored, as well as managed on hybrid cloud systems by 2018.

File synchronization and sharing also are expected be a standard embedded Enterprise Content Management (ECM) business function, while over one-fifth of all businesses will be managing content from multiple organizations. These realities emphasize the urgent need for businesses to update and future-proof processes by investing in systems that allow content to be smoothly integrated and easily accessed online, in order to remain competitive, says Gartner.

Across financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, legal and retail industries, the demand for ECM and Business Process Management (BPM) systems ) to be personalized and hyper-connected is rapidly increasing - magnified by the continuous rise in e-commerce and an increasingly agile...

Lifestyle-focused consumers are increasingly seeking products personalized to their individual preferences rather than those corresponding to traditional demographic stereotypes, according to research and consulting firm GlobalData (www.globaldata.com).

The company’s latest report states that many consumers, particularly younger ones, are moving away from traditional categorizations and labels, such as age and gender, which have conventionally been used to segment consumers. GlobalData’s 2016 consumer research found that 66% of consumers globally are most likely to purchase products developed for their particular lifestyle, a figure ranking above the percentage of those most swayed by demographic alignment.

“In today’s individualistic society, there is a growing desire for products which can better align with consumers based on their individual preferences and personality in order to effectively...

Compuware Corp. (www.compuware.com), a mainframe-dedicated software company, has released a survey of large company CIOs showing that while most (78%) say their mainframe is more secure than other systems, the majority (84 percent) say they are still exposed to a significant risk of insider threats due to blind-spots in internal data access and controls.

The survey was conducted by independent research company Vanson Bourne, and administered in April to 400 CIOs at large companies covering a cross-section of vertical markets in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the U.S. Key findings include:

° Sixty-four percent of organizations use the mainframe as a core repository of their most sensitive data, storing either more or equal amounts of customers’ Personally Identifiable Information (PII) there as they do on other systems.

Businesses large and small are scrambling to assess their General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) readiness, with less than a year to go until its implementation on May 25, 2018, according to Canalys (www.canalys.com).

The new framework demands a reassessment of the everyday operational structure for businesses that handle personal data in the EU. Canalys forecasts that this will spur the IT security market in Western and Central Eastern Europe to grow 16% to $11.5 billion in 2018. However, there are significant differences in preparedness between companies of varied sizes, according to the research group.

“Our research shows that large businesses are well informed on information security regulations, with resources in place to ensure compliance. With ransomware threats such as WannaCry causing havoc, shareholders will be more willing to accept increased data security and compliance budgets to protect...

Most of us rely on popular social media platforms for our social connectivity and well-being.

These platforms do a great job in connecting us with our friends, relatives, and acquaintances. In fact, the level of connectivity they provide is so high that many of us unknowingly attain a level of hyper-connectivity that blinds us from interacting with everyone else who's not already in our social network.

People in our immediate surroundings share common experiences with us. Whether its those that are waiting for the same train as you, the thousands of fellow spectators that are watching the same football game at a stadium with you, or everyone staying in the same hotel as you — you have more in common, and thus more reasons to interact, with people in your immediate vicinity than you realize. Unfortunately, most of these people are not already in your social network and therefore, opportunities to interact with them are usually lost.

More than a quarter of enterprises globally have not built, customized or virtualized any mobile apps in the last 12 months, according to the latest mobile app survey by Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

This number is surprisingly high, the research group’s analysts said, but it is still down from the year before. In the 2016 survey, 39% of respondents said they had not built, customized or virtualized any mobile apps in the previous 12 months.
Adrian Leow, research director at Gartner, said that enterprises are responding slowly to increasing demand for mobile apps.

"Many IT teams will have significant backlogs of application work that need completing, which increases the risk of lines of business going around IT to get what they want sooner," he added. "Development teams need to rethink their priorities and span of control over mobile app development or risk further erosion of IT budgets and the...

Worldwide shipments of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headsets continued to soar with a total of 2.3 million units shipped in the first quarter of 2017 (1Q17), according to IDC (www.idc.com). With a long list of new products scheduled to ship in the second half of 2017, the research group is forecasting triple-digit growth for the full year.

VR represented the vast majority (more than 98%) of headsets shipped during the first quarter. Within VR, about two-thirds of all headset shipments were screenless viewers, such as Samsung's Gear VR and Google's Daydream View. Meanwhile, tethered VR headsets, such as the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Sony's PSVR, accounted for one third of the market.

"The VR market is still very young and consumers seem to be taking a cautious approach," said Jitesh Ubrani senior research analyst for IDC's Mobile Device Trackers. "With plenty of headset options already in the...

Intel (www.intel.com) has revealed the findings from a new study that explores the yet-to-be-realized economic potential when today’s drivers become idle passengers. Coined the “Passenger Economy” by Intel and prepared by analyst firm Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com), the study predicts an explosive economic trajectory growing from US$800 billion in 2035 to US$7 trillion by 2050.

History has proven that technology is the catalyst for massive societal transformation and that businesses need to adapt or risk failure, or worse, extinction. New digital business models ushered in by personal computing, the internet, ubiquitous connectivity and smartphones gave birth to whole new economies. Autonomous driving will do the same.

“Companies should start thinking about their autonomous strategy now,” said Intel CEO Brian...

New data from Markets and Markets (www.marketsandmarkets.com) says the flexible display market will grow from $2.67 billion in 2016 to $15.14 billion by 2022, at a compound annual growth rate [CAGR] of 34.42% between 2017 and 2022.

The growth of this market is majorly driven by a technological shift to and development of energy-efficient, attractive, and high-specification products and the rising demand for smartphones, smartwatches, wearables, televisions, PC monitors, and laptops, according to the research group.

The smartphones and tablets segment was the largest market segment in 2016. The use of flexible displays in smartphones and tablets makes these more durable, as they offer stylish designs and better ergonomics to operate the devices, notes Markets and Market.

The OLED technology segment is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period, adds the...

In a reprise of previous comments on the subject, the Spy has resolved his issues with his Synology 4-bay 1815+ NAS, that he purchased for home use (yes, yes, overkill, but one cannot have too many backups, especially when one of them fails).

This unit worked worked well for over a year, but became flakey, started to beep, and when the Spy investigated, he found the volume had crashed. Attempting to turn it off and on again yielded a cold dead brick.

Synology issued an RMA an a promise to replace the unit if it couldn’t be repaired, and kept that promise, delivering a brand new unit. The volume could not be recovered from the drives, so had to be deleted and re-created, the users and apps reinstalled, the Time Machine functionality re-initialized. All now works well again. Synology service gets an A+ for standing behind their product, and a C- for speed of reply to the original ticket, and not replying at all when the Spy...

New research from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) shows that three-fourths of U.S. broadband households use Wi-Fi for in-home connectivity. The research group eamined the demand for smart home products and services and the impact across multiple verticals, including home energy and security, connected entertainment, smart home, and other IoT [Internet of Things] solutions.

"Consumers already use lots of data on their mobile, smart home, and entertainment devices, and Wi-Fi is doing most of the work in the home, accounting for more than 70% of data used per month in U.S. broadband households," said Harry Wang, senior director of Research, Parks Associates. "Consumer data needs will continue to increase, both in and outside the home, as between 2015 and 2020, U.S. households will acquire more than 2.3 billion connected devices. Providers and manufacturers must ensure their offerings can...

A new report by Juniper Research (www.juniperresearh.com) has found that criminal data breaches will cost businesses a total of $8 trillion over the next five years, due to higher levels of Internet connectivity and inadequate enterprise wide security.

The research group forecasts that the number of personal data records stolen by cybercriminals will reach 2.8 billion in 2017, almost doubling to five billion in 2020, despite new and innovative cybersecurity solutions emerging. Juniper found that SMEs (small and medium enterprises) are particularly at risk from cyberattacks, spending less than $4,000 on cybersecurity measures this year. Only marginal increases in security spend are expected over the next five years. These firms also tend to run older software, which WannaCry and other recent cyberattacks have exploited.

Juniper’s research highlights a need for companies to put more money into...

MachNation (www.machnation.com), an insight services firm, has released an in-depth evaluation and rating of 18 Internet of Things device management vendors.

According to survey data collected from participating vendors in the scorecard, Internet of Things (IoT) device management revenue will grow 107% in 2017 with only 33% of the revenue coming from North America. MachNation forecasts that 2017 worldwide IoT platform revenue will reach $2 billion as enterprise buyers invest in the underlying technology to power their IoT solutions. The firm’s survey data show that sectors including energy/utilities, transportation, industrial, manufacturing and smart cities generate the most revenue for device management vendors.

"MachNation, the industry's most knowledgeable researchers for IoT middleware and platforms, has coordinated the publication of our scorecard with the product launch of our new IoT Device...

According to new data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) more than 442 million connected consumer devices will be sold in the U.S. in 2020. These sales totals include connected entertainment, mobile, health, and smart home devices.

Personal assistant devices, which include speakers with voice control such as the Amazon Alexa and Google Home, are the fastest growing category with a compound annual growth rate of 78.3% in 2015-2020.

"Voice control is the top trend for 2017 in the IoT and smart home," said Elizabeth Parks, senior vice president, Parks Associates. "Parks Associates research shows U.S. consumers will buy more than 2.3 billion connected devices between 2015 and 2020, and they are showing strong preferences for voice as the interface for their devices. Companies in the smart home, entertainment, and connected car ecosystems are pursuing partnerships that can add voice...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) forecasts that users of digital commerce services will reach three billion by 2021, or 40% of the global population, up from just 32% this year.

The new research found that two core sectors will dominate the global digital commerce industry, in terms of transaction values: Remote payments for digital & physical goods, and digital banking via bill payment services.

These segments together will account for over half of global transaction values by 2021, according to Juniper. Significant opportunity for businesses exists, with remote payments for digital and physical goods forecast to account for over 10% of the $20 trillion global retail market in 2017, notes the research group.

Juniper’s study found that businesses will gain advantage through use of automated customer experiences. With product search and discovery a key...

Mobile Experts (www.mobile-experts.com), a domain marketplace, has released market research describing a cross-section of 5G cost. While the wide telecom industry is hyping up 5G, Mobile Experts has been making some hard-nosed financial calculations to determine the applications and scenarios where 5G can be successful.

According to their research, pure speed and low latency are not the primary objectives of 5G. Rather, Mobile Experts has discerned that 5G should be able to achieve a 10x reduction in cost per bit compared with LTE-- directed mostly toward video services of various kinds.

"Personally, I don't believe that new 5G applications will drive a lot of revenue. Virtual reality? No, that's short-range wireless, not mobile. Massive IoT? No, we have cheaper solutions for that. Critical IoT? Maybe, but that revenue will grow very slowly," commented Principal Analyst Joe Madden.

The US VR market formed 40% of the global market in the first quarter (Q1) of 2017, keeping its place as the largest market for VR in terms of volumes shipped worldwide, according to the Canalys research group (www.canalys.com).

Sony PlayStation VR dominated the US market with just over 60% share. It capitalized on its installed base of gaming devices, as well as its lower-cost headsets. Demand in the Japanese VR market meant that a total of 81,000 VR headsets were shipped in Japan. This was largely contributed by Sony, which conquered its home market with 90% market share.

As a result, China dropped to third place in terms of volumes of VR units shipped in the first quarter of 2017. HTC continues to lead in China, with 15,000 Vive headsets shipped in Q1 2017, taking up a quarter of the market. Sony experienced strong demand for its PlayStation VR in Japan, with the company still trying to fill demand...

The artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare market will witness a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 62.2% from now through 2022, according to new data from Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com).

AI is being adopted in healthcare using algorithm and software for the analysis of medical data with a view to predict diseases and provide proper medication. It will lead to personalization and optimization resulting in improved outcomes for both patients and healthcare systems, according to Research and Markets.

The need for pre-operative planning, high costs associated with healthcare, and rising chronic diseases amongst masses are driving the integration of AI in healthcare solutions, adds the research group. A basic AI computer used today in clinical practices can be used for alerts and reminders, diagnostic, therapy planning, information retrieval, and image...

Software—particularly cloud-based technology—is now creating roughly $1.4 trillion in economic value in the U.S. and is poised to grow even more, particularly as non-tech companies transform themselves into software businesses, according to a new report released y by global investment firm Battery Ventures (www.battery.com). The figure represents nearly 8% of U.S. GDP (gross domestic product).

The report was delivered by Battery General Partner Neeraj Agrawal at the inaugural CloudNY conference in New York. Based on earlier research by the BSA | The Software Alliance, as well as new research by Battery, the report traces the history of today’s software renaissance from the mainframe era in the 1970s through the client-server era, then into desktop “software-as-a-service” (SaaS) applications and, finally, to today’s cloud-first offerings delivered over the web.

Quark Software (www.quark.com) has released the “Content Automation Trends Report 2017.” The research, conducted in conjunction with market research firm InfoTrends, confirms that while digital transformation is driving content initiatives for most organizations, content teams continue to struggle to meet the need for engaging, device-specific content.

In fact, less than 20% of study respondents are confident their content is consistent across channels. This, along with other research findings, indicates a need for large organizations to move beyond basic file sharing and even traditional enterprise content management (ECM) in order to remain competitive.

Quark and InfoTrends surveyed 252 businesses worldwide with respondents spanning a range of industry sectors, departments, and job roles. The research objectives were to gain insight on current practices for managing content throughout its life cycle, uncover...

Interior design app Planner 5D (www.planner5D.com) will be incorporating AI into its apps in order to help users create their dream home design with a click of a button.

According to a new report from Tractica, AI software application will grow from $1.4 billion in 2016 to $60 billion by 2025. AI is currently taking over various professions, often proving that artificial mind can be more powerful, precise and creative than human. While AI has dominated chess for a long time, it has recently triumphed over humans in poker. Expanding the realm of traditional AI challenges, AI has just introduced an entirely new way of creating products by producing the famous Elbo chair, which combined aerospace engineering software with artisanal craftsmanship tool.

Planner 5D is currently creating machine learning algorithms that will train on over 40 million real user projects. All these projects offer an...

A new report from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has revealed that, by 2022, 50% of new vehicles will be shipped with V2V (Vehicle-to-Vehicle) hardware, a technology that enables real-time short-range communication between vehicles.

The new research found that the total number of V2V-enabled consumer vehicles on the road will reach 35 million by 2022, up from less than 150,000 vehicles in 2017. This strong growth rate (376% CAGR) reflects the early stages of roll-out for V2V, but will still only represent 2.7% off all vehicles.

The technology, launched by Mercedes-Benz and Cadillac, will play an important role in the advance of autonomous vehicles, as the annual production of self-driving cars approaches 15 million by 2025. Juniper Research found that, alongside GPS, LiDAR (Light-Detection and Ranging) and road mapping, V2V will be amongst the critical technologies in delivering...

Worldwide semiconductor revenue totaled $343.5 billion in 2016, a 2.6% increase from 2015 revenue of $334.9 billion, according to final results by Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

The top 25 semiconductor vendors' combined revenue increased 10.5 percent, a significantly better performance than the overall industry's growth. However, most of this growth resulted from merger and acquisition (M&A) activity.

"The semiconductor industry rebounded in 2016, with a weak start to the year, characterized by inventory correction, giving way to strengthening demand and an improving pricing environment in the second half," said James Hines research director at Gartner. "Worldwide semiconductor revenue growth was supported by increasing production in many electronic equipment segments, improving NAND flash memory pricing and relatively benign currency movements.”

The worldwide cloud infrastructure services market continued growing in the first quarter (Q1) of 2017, up 42% year on year to reach $11.4 billion, according to Canalys’ latest estimates.

Amazon’s AWS maintained its dominance, holding a stable global market share of 31%. It was followed by its strongest hyper-scale rivals — Microsoft, Google and IBM. Microsoft grew 93% and Google was up 74% compared to the same quarter a year ago. These growth rates were faster than those of AWS and IBM, which grew 43% and 38% respectively, according to the research group.

“Competition for enterprise customers is intensifying among leading cloud service providers, which are investing heavily to secure key national and global accounts,” said Canalys (www.canalys.com) Research Analyst Daniel Liu. “Timing is crucial, as many large accounts are assessing, formulating and executing strategies to move existing workloads and...

New data from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) forecasts that the global value of contactless transactions made via payment cards, mobile and wearables, will reach $1.3 trillion by 2019, more than doubling from an estimated $590 billion in 2017.

According to the research group, contactless card levels will continue to dominate transaction values, accounting for 80% of total contactless transactions in 2019. The research forecasts that contactless transactions via debit/credit cards will exceed $2 trillion globally by 2021.

Juniper’s research found that many markets with a relatively well established contactless infrastructure have been seeded by the card providers, albeit with varying degrees of success. The research group found that in 2016, while cards accounted for well over 90% of transactions by value in many European markets (for example, rising to 99% in Spain), in the U.S....

Last Friday morning, a ransomware attack started spreading across the globe, infecting tens of thousands of computers. Those affected included over 40 health service trusts and FedEx’s offices in the United Kingdom, a telecom in Spain, and the Russian Interior Ministry.

The malicious software, transferred over email and stolen from the National Security Agency (NSA), exposed vulnerabilities in computer systems in almost 100 countries in total, constituting one of the largest ransomware attacks on record.

The attack was in fact largely preventable, if only more Windows users had installed the critical security patch that Microsoft released for it two months ago and followed a few other security rules.

“Criminals took advantage of the fact that most people still don’t do enough to protect their computers,” said Marty P. Kamden, CMO of NordVPN (Virtual Private Network). “We at NordVPN strive to raise public awareness about what each person...

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released “The Changing TV Experience: 2017,” a study revealing that most U.S. adults (56%) own a streaming enabled TV, a 56% rise from just two years ago, a fundamental shift in the way that Americans watch television.

Almost all Americans (92%) own a TV. However, today the majority of time spent (54%) watching TV is dedicated to something other than traditional linear programming (46%). The largest share of that non-linear time is spent streaming digital video (20%), which can include network TV shows, subscription service original shows, or original digital video content. The remaining viewing time is devoted to: watching programming via DVR recording (15%), Video on Demand (6%), and downloaded video (5%), in addition to another 8%t that is uncategorized.

Among the 56% of U.S. Adults who own streaming enabled TVs, watching digital video on them became an entrenched habit in 2017, with nearly half (46%) saying they do so...

After over 15 years of research and development in academia and industry, several main applications of 3D bioprinting technology are ready to be realized. In IDTechEx’s (www.IDTechEx.com) new report titled "3D Bioprinting 2017 – 2027: Technologies, Markets, Forecasts," the global 3D bioprinting market is predicted to experience a period of high growth to reach a size of $1.8 billion by the year 2027.

3D bioprinting, defined as the layer-by-layer deposition of cells to create a final 3D construct, provides users with the unique ability to create artificial tissue that closely resembles native tissue in form and function from basic biological building blocks. This biological mimicry not only enables a more efficient use of research resources by yielding physiologically relevant results, but also has applications in regenerative medicine...

DFLabs (www.dflabs.com), which specializes in security automation and orchestration technology, has announced new research from Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), commissioned by DFLabs and other technology vendors, which shows that when it comes to the evolution of Cybersecurity Analytics and Operations, 71% of respondent organizations find it more difficult today than it was two years ago due to the changing threat landscape, followed by volume of alerts and increased regulatory changes.

“Despite businesses making it a priority, there is great confusion on how to make sense of and integrate security analytics and Operations. Most organizations are dealing with 10 to 25 technologies ranging from SIEMs, vulnerability assessment, endpoint detection, threat intelligence and user behavior to incident response. They are challenged with the total cost of operations and spending too much time on emergency issues,” said Jon...

CIOs have a major role to play in preparing businesses for the impact that artificial intelligence (AI) will have on business strategy and human employment, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). The research group predicts that by 2022, smart machines and robots may replace highly trained professionals in tasks within medicine, law and IT.

"The economics of AI and machine learning will lead to many tasks performed by professionals today becoming low-cost utilities," said Stephen Prentice, vice president and Gartner Fellow. "AI's effects on different industries will force the enterprise to adjust its business strategy. Many competitive, high-margin industries will become more like utilities as AI turns complex work into a metered service that the enterprise pays for, like electricity.”

The effects that AI will have on the enterprise will depend on its industry, business, organization and customers. Mr...

The travel season is almost here. Free Wi-Fi at cafes, airports, restaurants and city streets is used by almost everyone who’s traveling – but how many people take an extra step to make sure their browsing is not only convenient, but also safe?

Last year, NordVPN (Virtual Private Network) released safety tips for public Wi-Fi, but the number of public Wi-Fi scams only seems to be increasing, showing that people still don’t treat their online security seriously. According to privatewifi.com study, 79% of respondents still don’t use a VPN when they go on public Wi-Fi. According to NordVPN’s recent survey (reikia linko be login credentials, geriausiai i webpage, o ne Exceli) almost half of respondents (reiktu procento) didn’t know that, for example, it was dangerous to shop online on a public network.

Here are some of the most common ways that a hacker can take advantage of someone’s device connected to a public Wi-Fi hotspot:

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that chatbots will redefine the customer service industry, with healthcare and banking sectors set to benefit the most. The new research forecasts that chatbots will be responsible for cost savings of over $8 billion per annum by 2022, up from $20 million this year.

Juniper expects dramatic cost savings to be made in the healthcare and banking sectors, as enquiry resolution times are reduced and cost savings boosted. Research author Lauren Foye explains: “We believe that healthcare and banking providers using bots can expect average time savings of just over four minutes per enquiry, equating to average cost savings in the range of $0.50-$0.70 per interaction. As Artificial Intelligence advances, reducing reliance on human representatives undoubtedly spells job losses.”

According to a new market research report by MarketsandMarkets (www.marketsandmarkets.com), the market size for the Internet of Things (IoT) operating system market will grow from $289.2 million in 2017 to $1,721.3 Million by 2022, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42.9%.

The major forces driving the operating system market include the increasing traction for emergence of technologies, such as cloud computing and mobility, adds the research group. What’s more, adoption by the small and medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) is populating the growth of the IoT operating systems. The reason being, SMEs always look for operating systems to focus on developing a systematic approach for organizations and becoming more proactive toward their business operations.

The client side architecture of IoT operating systems is designed to provide a consolidated view of the processed and analyzed data...

Moore's Law, which states that processing speeds will double every two years as we cram more and more silicon transistors onto chips, has been faltering since the early 2000s when the law started to run up against fundamental limitations presented by the laws of thermodynamics.

While the chip industry, with Intel leading the charge, has found ways to sidestep the limitations up until now, many are now saying that despite the industry’s best efforts, the stunning gains in processor speeds will not be seen again by the simple application of Moore’s Law.

In fact, there is evidence to show that we are reaching the plateau for the number of transistors that will fit on a single chip. Intel has even suggested silicon transistors can only keep getting smaller during the next five years.

As a result, Intel has resorted to other practices to improve processing speeds, such as adding multiple...

Organizations need to rethink traditional approaches to customer experience management according to a new study sponsored by Axway (www.axway.com), “a catalyst for transformation,” in partnership with IDC, a provider of global IT research and advice.

The study found that despite customer experience being the top digital initiative for organizations, 69% have yet to implement a single view of the customer.
The study surveyed more than 600 senior executives in IT, digital and customer experience roles at the largest global enterprises across the U.S., Europe and Asia.

It revealed that customer experience is now the most critical digital initiative for more than 70% of enterprises. The study also indicated that customer experience is now replacing product and price as a means to create brand value, distinctiveness and strategic differentiation.

The Spy has become one (a technology driver that is) for as reported in his March column, he and wife Joyce recently purchased their first new car in over two decades--a Subaru Forester--and it is technology rich.

Typical of mind-range SUV crossovers, it has a rear camera with dash display for same, multiple information screens, steerable fog lights, smart air bags, blind spot detectors in the mirrors, keyless entry with secure fob, always on all wheel drive, adaptive cruise control, latched gas access lid, rear side obstacle detectors, lane departure detection and correction, heated front seats, a media centre with more options than they will ever use (or even want). OTOH, plenty of safety and anti-theft features, but of course OTOH, lots of potential for technology to go south.

Odd omissions include no tire pressure monitoring--required in the US of A, but left out here in the frozen north. Subtract a couple of marks. Also...

The head of FCC (U.S. Federal Communications Commission), Ajit Pai, has announced that he will start the process of repealing FCC’s net neutrality rules that were approved by President Obama in 2015. The announcement starts a new battle over the future of the Internet, censorship and role of ISPs (Internet Service Providers) in what people can read or watch online.

Current net neutrality rules prohibit broadband providers from giving or selling access to a "fast lane" of Internet to certain Internet services over others. A neutral network gives equal transmission priority over all content moving across it, and no content is subjected to slow downs or blocking. The loss of net neutrality could mean that priority is given to the content of big providers.

Many websites worry that when the rules are repealed, they will lose access to clients and page views. Even larger websites – such as streaming service providers like Netflix or Hulu – can experience...

A new study by Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com)has found the value of digital payments will approach $3.9 trillion this year, representing an increase of more than 14% on last year’s total. While the bulk of transaction value (55%) will be accounted for by online retail purchases for physical goods, P2P (Person to Person) money transfers will see the largest year-on-year net increase in value ($200 million).

The new research shows that the U.S. will see particularly strong growth, with the bank-backed Zelle Network expected to build on its successful debut in 2016 as additional banks come on board. Juniper emphasizes that the demonetization policies employed by India’s government had encouraged a surge in mobile wallet adoption and, with it, sharp increases in both P2P and mobile retail transactions.

Meanwhile, the research group says the U.S. will see further strong growth in...

Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com) has announced the addition of the "Smartphone, Tablet & Modem Market 2017" report to their offering.

This report provides a detailed market analysis of all significant smartphones, wireless-connected tablets (cellular & Wi-Fi) and modems. Five-year forecasts are provided in considerable detail for each. In addition, smartphone and non-smart cellphones are forecast for all global regions.

The report also provides 2016 quarterly unit shipments and YOY market shares in revenue for the top smartphone, tablet and modem suppliers and discusses the 2017 market positioning of the primary vendors. Both revenue and unit shipments for 2016 are provided for major vendors of each category and five-year forecasts for all covered devices are included.

Top-performing organizations in the private and public sectors, on average, spend a greater proportion of their IT budgets on digital initiatives (33%) than government organizations (21%), according to a global survey of CIOs by Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). Looking forward to 2018, top-performing organizations anticipate spending 43% of their IT budgets on digitalization, compared with 28% for government CIOs, says the research group.

Gartner's 2017 CIO Agenda survey includes the views of 2,598 CIOs from 93 countries, representing US$9.4 trillion in revenue or public sector budgets and $292 billion in IT spending, including 377 government CIOs in 38 countries. Government respondents are segmented into national or federal, state or province (regional) and local jurisdictions, to identify trends specific to each tier. For the purposes of the survey, respondents were also categorized as top, typical and trailing...

Apple CEO Tim Cook's recent announcement putting Augmented Reality (AR) at the forefront of the tech giant’s product strategy has emboldened and provoked technology companies to showcase their own AT technologies and platforms.

Virtual Reality (VR) seems to have taken a back seat as the question is no longer VR or AR. The buzz is about who will dominate the AR space. Following Impossible's introduction of its Google Tango based, and open source, Glimpse platform, Facebook announced its first mainstream AR platform during its annual Developer Conference. Facebook put the camera, more specifically the camera on your smartphone, front and center of its AR strategy by unveiling Facebook Camera Effects to its developers during F8.

According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's new open source platform will allow developers to make AR apps that will enable users to view and digitally manipulate the physical world around them with smartphone cameras. A technology popularized...

Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen said that “software is eating the world” in a famous essay published in “The Wall Street Journal” back in 2011. He was referring to the way that software is reshaping a growing number of industries - from airlines to manufacturing — and how it's becoming a necessity to embrace software to remain competitive.

The good news is that these trends have created many opportunities for investors keeping a close eye on Apple, MySize, BlackBerry, Alphabet and Qualcomm.
It's hard to purchase clothing online because you can't try it on beforehand. But, that hasn't stopped online shoppers from purchasing billions of dollars worth of clothing and shoes online each year. Many shoppers purchase multiple items with plans to return the items that don't fit. These shoppers are expected to return about a third of these goods, according to Customer Growth Properties (http://tinyurl....

Michael Inouye, principal analyst at ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) says Virtual Reality (VR) creates more revenues today than Augmented Reality (AR), but it relies heavily on hardware sales, which account for over 60% of total revenue compared to roughly 30-40% in AR.

AR has tremendous viral potential because it leverages mobile devices already in most end users’ pockets, with service availability in the home, public spaces, and workplaces, says Inouye. This creates nearer term synergies with mobile device manufacturers (such as Apple) and social networks (such as Facebook), he adds. By 2019 AR is forecast to surpass VR in total revenue opportunity, reflecting VR’s longer-term development cycle as content developers, workplaces, and consumers incrementally embrace future iterations of VR hardware and optimize new use cases.

Deep learning machines are taking over a large portion of drivers' automotive tasks and will completely take over driving in 10 years, according to a recently published report by IoT [Internet of Things] market research firm ON World (www.onworld.com).

"The connected car is experiencing exponential technological advancements and enormous investment over the past three years," says Mareca Hatler, ON World's research director. "This accelerated growth can be seen in the patents granted, favorable government regulations and the videos of Tesla cars driving their occupants to work while they shave.”

3Cinteractive (3c.com), a provider of mobile marketing services, has unveiled its 2017 Mobile Loyalty Progress Report, providing an update on how brands are bridging the technology gap in offering mobile-enabled loyalty programs to consumers.

Last year, 3C surveyed brand marketers and consumers on the landscape of mobile-enabled loyalty program offerings, and the report uncovered a distinct gap in what brands were offering versus consumer expectations. This year, 3C again presented its mobile loyalty online survey to more than 2,300 consumers and over 500 brand marketers, finding improvements in some key areas. In fact, 64% of brands reported an increase in loyalty program membership over the last year—and the majority cited the addition of mobile components as the biggest contributor to this increase. Other key findings:

We live in a visual society, and increasingly a video society. The corporate world knows this, and is leveraging video for uses other than just branding or marketing. Video is now often used to communicate important messages for moving people to action: for example, to invite investors to take a stake in your company, to encourage employees to rally around a strategy or initiative, or to recruit prospective employees.

As a filmmaker and creative director, I’m constantly looking for the next technology or trend to make my own work stronger and understand the context that corporations are coming to the table with. Here are some trends I’ve noticed lately.

° Welcome to the video tsunami. Video is by far the way more and more people want to receive messages and information. We’re at the crest of the wave, and the surf is up. By 2020, 84% of all Internet traffic will be video. That’s an astounding number.

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games such as World of Warcraft, and MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) games including DoTA 2, are to account for almost 25% of the digital games industry this year.

The new research forecasts that revenues from this genre will accelerate to $43bn by 2021, accounting for over a third of global games industry revenues. The research cites the F2P (Free to Play) model as being the key catalyst. The research also found that console and mobile devices offer great scope for future growth, with these platforms having been underutilized until now, particularly in Western markets.

Nevertheless, Juniper predicted that opportunity across these platforms would be distinct for MMO and MOBA games, with emerging technology and business model innovation acting to increase traction. For example,...

Venafi (www.venafi.com), a provider of machine identity protection, has announced the results of a study on the cryptographic security practices of DevOps teams. Cryptographic security risks are amplified in DevOps settings, where compromises in development or test environments can spread to production systems and applications.

According to the study, many organizations fail to enforce vital cryptographic security measures in their DevOps environments. These problems are especially acute among organizations that are in the midst of adopting DevOps practices, but even organizations that say their DevOps practices are mature do not follow security practices designed to protect cryptographic keys and digital certificates.

“It’s clear that most organizations are still struggling with securing the cryptographic keys and digital certificates used to uniquely identify machines,” said Kevin Bocek, chief security...

NSS Labs (www.nsslabs.com), which specializes in operationalizing cybersecurity, has announced the results of its Data Center Firewall (DCFW) Group Test. Seven products from five vendors were tested. All seven products scored 100% in firewall policy enforcement testing, but no product demonstrated the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) across all tested scenarios.

Enterprises store vast quantities of sensitive, business-critical information in modern data centers. Growth in the deployment of mobility and cloud computing technologies in data centers has transformed traffic patterns from a predominantly business-to-business (B2B) model with long duration connections commonly found in software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications to a business-to-consumer (B2C) model with short lived, high-volume connections, such as e-commerce transactions. When selecting DCFWs to support these use cases, enterprises look for products...

Software Updates via MacUpdate

Hopper Disassembler 4.3.16- - Binary dis...

Hopper Disassembler is a binary disassembler, decompiler, and debugger for 32- and 64-bit executables. It will let you disassemble any binary you want, and provide you all the information about its... Read more

Default Folder X 5.2.2 - Enhances Open a...

Default Folder X attaches a toolbar to the right side of the Open and Save dialogs in any OS X-native application. The toolbar gives you fast access to various folders and commands. You just click on... Read more

EtreCheck 4.0.1 - For troubleshooting yo...

EtreCheck is an app that displays the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to... Read more

Carbon Copy Cloner 5.0.9 - Easy-to-use b...

Carbon Copy Cloner backups are better than ordinary backups. Suppose the unthinkable happens while you're under deadline to finish a project: your Mac is unresponsive and all you hear is an ominous,... Read more

QuickBooks 17.2.25.638 R26 - Financial m...

QuickBooks helps you manage your business easily and efficiently. Organize your finances all in one place, track money going in and out of your business, and spot areas where you can save.
Built for... Read more

Monosnap 3.4.10 - Versatile screenshot u...

Monosnap lets you capture screenshots, share files, and record video and .gifs!
Features
Capture
Capture full screen, just part of the screen, or a selected window
Make your crop area pixel... Read more

Vivaldi 1.14.1077.50 - An advanced brows...

Vivaldi is a browser for our friends.
In 1994, two programmers started working on a web browser. Our idea was to make a really fast browser, capable of running on limited hardware, keeping in mind... Read more

Viber 8.2.0 - Send messages and make fre...

Viber lets you send free messages and make free calls to other Viber users, on any device and network, in any country!
Viber syncs your contacts, messages and call history with your mobile device, so... Read more

QuickBooks 17.2.25.638 R26 - Financial m...

QuickBooks helps you manage your business easily and efficiently. Organize your finances all in one place, track money going in and out of your business, and spot areas where you can save.
Built for... Read more

Carbon Copy Cloner 5.0.9 - Easy-to-use b...

Carbon Copy Cloner backups are better than ordinary backups. Suppose the unthinkable happens while you're under deadline to finish a project: your Mac is unresponsive and all you hear is an ominous,... Read more

Latest Forum Discussions

Our top 5 characters from casual RPG Cre...

Creature Quest definitely lives up to its name with a host of collectible creatures based on fantasy tales and world mythologies. To celebrate Creature Quest’s first birthday, we’re going to lay out what we think are the five best characters in the... | Read more »

Around the Empire: What have you missed...

Did you know that Steel Media has a whole swathe of other sites dedicated to all aspects of mobile gaming? Sure you'll get the very best iPhone news, reviews, and opinions right here at 148Apps, but we don't want you missing out on a single piece... | Read more »

All the best games on sale for iPhone an...

Oh hi there, and welcome to our round-up of the best games that are currently on sale for iPhone and iPad. You thought I didn't see you there, did you, skulking behind the bushes? Trust me though, the bushes aren't where the best deals are. The... | Read more »

The Battle of Polytopia Guide - How to H...

A new update just released for The Battle of Polytopia (formerly Super Tribes), which introduces online multiplayer. For all the fans of Midjiwan’s lite take on Civilization, this is certainly welcome news, but playing online isn’t as easy and... | Read more »

Here are the very best mobile games to p...

It's Valentine's Day! Did you get loads of cards and chocolates and other tacky, simple expressions of human affection? Did you send out tat because you find it almost impossible to express emotion unless there's a section dedicated to it at your... | Read more »

A laid-back mix of RPG and TCG, Creature Quest is all about building your deck, evolving your creatures and winning in battle. It’s the creation of VC Mobile, set up by Might and Magic producer Jon Van Caneghem. There are elements of that classic... | Read more »

Check out this awesome hands-on with the...

Well, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has come out on mobile. This isn't a clone, this isn't a riff on the battleroyale mechanics of the game, it's the official mobile port by Tencent. But there's a little bit of a hitch.
[Read more]
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Hostage Negotiator (Entertainment)

Hostage Negotiator 1.1.0
Device: iOS Universal
Category: Entertainment
Price: $3.99, Version: 1.1.0 (iTunes)
Description:
Official app of the board game by AJ Porfirio and Van Ryder Games.
In Hostage Negotiator, you play the part of... | Read more »

Price Scanner via MacPrices.net

Saturday Sale: Amazon offers 13″ 1.8GHz/256GB...

Amazon has the 13″ 1.8GHz/256B Apple MacBook Air on sale today for $250 off MSRP including free shipping:
– 13″ 1.8GHz/256GB MacBook Air (MQD42LL/A): $949.99, $250 off MSRP
Their price is the lowest... Read more

Roundup of Apple Certified Refurbished 12″ Ma...

Apple has Certified Refurbished 2017 12″ Retina MacBooks available for $200-$240 off the cost of new models. Apple will include a standard one-year warranty with each MacBook, and shipping is free.... Read more

Apple offers Certified Refurbished 10″ and 12...

Apple is now offering Certified Refurbished 2017 10″ and 12″ iPad Pros for $100-$190 off MSRP, depending on the model. An Apple one-year warranty is included with each model, and shipping is free:
–... Read more

Apple Canada offers Certified Refurbished Mac...

Canadian shoppers can save up to $560 on the purchase of a 2017 current-generation MacBook Pro, MacBook, or MacBook Air with Certified Refurbished models at Apple Canada. Apple’s refurbished prices... Read more

Adorama has the 8-core iMac Pro on sale for $4799 including free shipping plus NY & NJ sales tax only. Their price is $200 off MSRP, and it’s the currently lowest price available for an iMac Pro.
Read more

Sale! Walmart lowers prices even more on 9″ i...

Walmart has lowered their sale price on 9.7″ Apple iPads to $80 off MSRP for a limited time. Sale prices are for online orders only, in-store prices may vary:
– 9″ 32GB iPad: $249.99 $80 off
– 9″... Read more

Roundup of 13″ MacBook Pro sales, models avai...

B&H Photo has 13″ MacBook Pros on sale for up to $200 off MSRP. Shipping is free, and B&H charges sales tax for NY & NJ residents only. Their prices are the lowest available for these... Read more

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